Thursday, December 23, 2010

Fairfield University alumnus Douglas Perlitz was sentenced to 19 years seven months today by a New Haven federal judge for sexually abusing minors in Haiti.

The 235 months Perlitz will serve in prison is the maximum desired by the prosecution, and will include 10 years of probation. Perlitz, an honorary commencement speaker, had been facing anywhere from eight to nineteen years in prison after pleading guilty on August 18, 2010 for one count of traveling with the intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct to Haiti.

What started as a story of the embodiment of Jesuit ideals and Christian charity ended in catastrophe today with the sentencing of Perlitz. Perlitz, who founded Project Pierre Touissant (PPT) in 1997, ran the project until the Haitian Fund board of directors removed him after allegations of sexual assault surfaced in 2008. PPT took in children from the streets of Haiti and provided them with meals, sports activity, basic classroom instruction and access to running water for bathing.

The Haiti Fund was formed to aid in fundraising and overseeing the operations of PPT in 1999. Initiated by Rev. Paul Carrier, S.J.,

Fairfield University employees and Fairfield and Westchester County residents, the Haiti Fund began actively fundraising in the community as well as on the Fairfield University campus.

the former Jesuit priest, theater experimenter and fervid modern art ambassador will have one of the world’s most intriguing spaces in which to run amok. “It’s the biggest opportunity in contemporary art in the United States right now,”Rush said. “The next year of my life is going to be amazing. The last few days have been amazing.”

After a whirlwind rush of meetings and greetings at MSU last week, Rush declared that there’s simply no precedent in the United States for the Broad Museum — a new space for contemporary art, on a college campus, in a stunning polygon of stainless steel plates designed by ultramodern architect Zaha Hadid.

Henry “H.J.” Shea, S.J., who graduated from the College in 2007, had convinced himself he would become a lawyer. “I had a whole plan mapped out,” says Shea, now in the “First Studies” stage of his Jesuit training. “But midway through my freshman year, I had a powerful spontaneous experience in prayer that changed my life.”“I had a strong sense of being called to a Jesuit vocation, accompanied by a deep joy,” he explains.

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

The American diplomatic cables show a long and increasingly futile effort on behalf of the embassy to mediate between the Vatican archivists and outside historians, bedevilled by mutual mistrust. The story starts in 2001, when the first attempt to negotiate a solution had already broken down. Father Peter Gumpel, a German Jesuit priest and admirer of Pius XII, who was keeper of the archives, threatened to sue a journalist who suggested that he or his family had been Nazis, the cables show. "Gumpel also expressed concern about references in the media and in other comments to him as the 'German Jesuit'. Gumpel [said] his family had been victims of Nazi persecution and several had been killed by the Nazis. He himself had to flee Nazi Germany as a refugee, first to France and then later to Holland. He recalled that at one point a reporter had planned to print an assertion that Gumpel was a Nazi himself – something Gumpel said was libellous, and which he was more than willing to go to court to fight."

A postmortem examination has ruled out foul play in the death of a Jesuit priest in a college in Tamil Nadu.

Father Susaipitchai, 55, rector of the Jesuit-run Saint Joseph’s College in Tiruchirapalli, was found dead in his bed on Sunday. Police and his confreres broke open the door to his room after he had not been seen for two days and failed to answer either of his two mobile phones.

Jesuit sources in Madurai province say the police ordered the autopsy, which found that the priest died of cardiac arrest on Dec 17.

The Jesuit-run University of San Francisco honored the Leadership Conference of Women Religious at its fall commencement exercises on Friday, Dec. 17, in what the National Catholic Reporter characterized as “a signal to the Vatican.”In 2009, Cardinal William Levada, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, announced that the Leadership Conference of Women Religious was under doctrinal review because of the “tenor and doctrinal content” of various addresses at the organization’s annual assemblies since 2001. That investigation is still under way, along with a series of apostolic visitations to women’s religious communities in the U.S. “We honor Catholic Women Religious to recognize their uncompromising commitment to serve those underrepresented and underprivileged with love and concern,” USF president Fr. Stephen Privett, S.J., was quoted as saying in the university’s announcement.

The well spoken liberal, Fr. James Martin, S.J. an editor at America magazine, the chaplain of Comedy Central's "Colbert Report" appeared on Fox News' "Fox and Friends". Watch Fr. Martin's interview (here). Wouldn't it be neat to read conservative Jesuits at America magazine? A fair and balanced America magazine, now that would be something!

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

The largest and ablest collection of mathematicians in Italy belonged to the Society of Jesus. When he started serious study of mathematics, Galileo sought and obtained the advice and approval of their leader, Father Christopher Clavius. He had to break off relations in 1606, when the Venetian state expelled the Jesuits from its territories. Galileo restored the connection soon after returning to Florence in 1610 as “Mathematician and Philosopher to the Grand Duke of Tuscany.” Again he had an urgent need for Clavius’s endorsement. The astonishing discoveries he had made in 1609/10 by turning his telescope on the heavens challenged credulity. By the end of 1610 he had the confirmation he wanted. Clavius’s group of mathematicians invited him to their headquarters in Rome to celebrate the “message from the stars,” as Galileo had entitled the book in which he had announced his discoveries, and to toast the messenger.

Saturday, December 18, 2010

The battleground for this engagement on the merits of Le@bian-G@-Bis@xual-Transg@nderness is, of course, Marquette University. Still reeling from the tasty scandal where the university decided not to hire someone whose ideals conflict with the school’s own mission, another interesting flower has sprung up. As reported in the Warrior blog (mu-warrior.blogspot.com), Vice President of Student Affairs Chris Miller invited lesbian activist Ronni Sanlo Ed.D. as a “consultant” for an on-campus meeting October 28 and 29. If you haven’t heard of this, you’re not alone; apparently no one did. A search for Sanlo’s name brought up no results on the Marquette web page, and the invitation e-mails obtained by Warrior staff were sent to a very narrow selection of people. Furthermore, there is no mention of Sanlo’s visit in the Marquette University News Briefs, though the invitations to attend her meetings were sent out weeks before. The implication is that we hoi polloi were not welcome to attend and support Sanlo’s message, or to question its relevance to our own experience, or even to be aware that one of the “20 Powerful Lesbian Academics” named by Rachel Pepper, coordinator of LG/T studies at Yale, was visiting our humble campus with us in mind.

Recently, a series of Letters to the Editor appeared in The Heights, the independent student newspaper of Boston College, in response to an event organized by Boston College Students for Sexual Health (BCSSH) to provide c@ndoms, s@xual health information, and other resources to students. This event was organized off-campus on public sidewalks highly trafficked by students.

During the c@ndom distribution, a Jesuit priest and Resident Minister in a freshman dormitory engaged with volunteers, expressing his beliefs about condoms as an irresponsible and irrational means of protecting oneself and one's partner as well as making comments that condoms are degrading to all people.

A party of dissent emerged, and in recent decades strong voices, most tenured in theology departments at Catholic universities,

have waged a campaign against what they perceive to be magisterial intransigence on a whole range of moral issues.

But the story of moral theology has not been only a tale of dissent. Over the past three decades an unwavering rejection of abortion has unified American Catholics across a wide spectrum of theological positions. Moreover, in debates about American foreign policy, Catholics have done a great deal to revitalize rigorous moral analysis. Various Catholic writers have also laid out economic and social visions that range from liberationist critiques of capitalism to neoconservative endorsements.

Angry dissent, striking consensus, vigorous interventions into public debates - the history of modern Catholic moral theology needs to be part of any effort to understand the modern Catholic experience. Unfortunately, A History of Catholic Moral Theology in the Twentieth Centuryoffers little help in understanding that history.

The main body of the book is made up of half-digested seminar notes and long bibliographical digressions that suggest wide reading but no sophisticated analysis. The book lacks historical context and fails to make connections to the larger theological trends of the twentieth century, and the author,

Fr. James F. Keenan, S.J., remains so thoroughly invested in the party of dissent that what little analysis he provides suffers from tendentious simplification and sometimes petty, petulant observations.

The end result is a book that serves as an almost perfect illustration of the sad intellectual dead end to which the post-Vatican II liberal Catholic project has come.

A Jesuit order has suspended the Rev. Paul Carrier from performing any religious duties while it investigates his relationships with students while serving at Fairfield University.But the Society of Jesus New England Province, Carrier's order, is not the only group investigating his actions at Fairfield University. Stanley A. Twardy Jr., Connecticut's former U.S. Attorney and now a partner in Day Pitney, a Stamford law firm, said he and his firm have been hired by Fairfield University to look into Carrier's actions at the school. Carrier served two stints encompassing 20 years at Fairfield, first as an instructor and then as chaplain and director of campus ministry. He was transferred from the school in 2008 at about the same time federal investigators began digging into allegations of sexual abuse at a Haitian school operated by Douglas Perlitz, Carrier's prize student.

"They never gave us a dime"Richard Cardinal Cushing said, characterizing as "phonies and liars" those who claim the Society did. " I gave the Jesuits a 100,000 dollars to build their offices, the least they could have done was to call me up and tell me I was the only one mentioned in the (America magazine) article."

Thursday, December 16, 2010

The Rev. Francis X. Cleary was 20 years old and about to enter the Society of Jesus at St. Stanislaus Seminary in Florissant when Jesuits performed an exorcism on a 14-year-old boy in the old psychiatric wing of Alexian Brothers Hospital on south Broadway. The event would become the basis for William Peter Blatty's 1971 novel "The Exorcist" and the hit movie that followed. It also would remain a fascination for Father Cleary, who later in life became an unofficial historian of the event; the go-to Jesuit on all matters "Exorcist," both real and fabled. Father Cleary, who was ordained in 1963 and became a renowned biblical scholar at St. Louis University, died Wednesday (Dec. 8, 2010) of infirmities at Jesuit Hall at SLU. He was 81. In the years immediately after the Second Vatican Council, Father Cleary was a graduate student in Rome, studying sacred Scripture at the Pontifical Biblical Institute and later earning his doctorate in sacred theology at the Pontifical Gregorian Institute. Vatican II opened up the Catholic liturgy to the vernacular, and Father Cleary took advantage of his proximity to that historic change in Catholic life by studying how to communicate the Bible to lay people.

Douglas Perlitz's descent into s@xually abusing homeless Haitian street boys he set out to help is linked to "a dark and abusive relationship," both "physical and spiritual," that he developed with a Fairfield University priest shortly after his arrival on campus in 1988, according to a document filed by his lawyers.......

Perlitz's relationship with priest continued "for many years, including during all of his work in Haiti." The New Haven lawyer said Perlitz's first exposure to Haiti came as a Fairfield University student. "He traveled with a campus group (including the priest) for a 10-day project, working in the community," the lawyer noted....

As money flowed in through donations given by the Fairfield University and wealthy Fairfield and Westchester County Catholics, the program grew into Project Pierre Toussaint. It employed 35 people and provided for over 200 kids. "Doug was elevated and lauded by supporters of the program, as well as by the priest who had been such an integral part of his life since his earliest days at Fairfield," Grudberg wrote. "He had remained intertwined in Doug's life following his graduation and played a major role in PPT as well." One priest who played a key role in Perlitz's life from his days at Fairfield through his years in Haiti was the Rev. Paul Carrier, who served as the university's director of campus ministry and chaplain for 18 years.

Jesuit Father Thomas Lawler has been appointed to be the next provincial of the Wisconsin Province of the Society of Jesus. The appointment was made by Jesuit Superior General Father Adolfo Nicolás, and it will take effect in June 2011. Fr. Lawler will succeed Jesuit Father Thomas Krettek.

Liturgy is the summit toward which the activity of the Church is directed; at the same time it is the fountain from which all her power flows (from the Catholic Church’s Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy).

These words form a mandate for the Church, one that is at once obvious and at the same time unrealized. Catholics would never argue that the Mass is unimportant to them, in fact they would insist the opposite. Yet would they claim as their own the importance that Vatican II gives to liturgy? The Center for Liturgy takes as its mission the realization of the Vatican II vision.

A federal jury in Tacoma on Monday convicted five anti-war activists – including a Jesuit priest from the Hilltop – for breaking into Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor to protest the nuclear weapons stored there, the U.S. Attorney’s Office reported.

The jury found guilty on all counts the Rev. Bill Bichsel, 82, of Tacoma; the Rev. Stephen Kelly, 60, a Jesuit priest from Oakland, Calif.; Sister Anne Montgomery, 84, of Redwood City, Calif.; Susan Crane, 67, a retired public school teacher from Baltimore; and Lynne Greenwald, 60, a social worker from Bremerton. They were convicted of conspiracy, trespassing and destruction of government property.

They’re scheduled to be sentenced March 28; they face up to 10 years in prison. The defendants admitted they broke into the base on Nov. 2, 2009, using bolt cutters to cut through three chain-link fences to enter an area where nuclear warheads are stored.

Blogger Note: Two Internet sources claim a financial settlement between the local diocese, Fr. Pecklers and Keith Brennan in 2008. The first (here) at NJ.com and (here) in the comments section by Keith Brennan.The story is making its way to Italian media (here)Statement by SNAP (here)

"The Lord God will wipe away the tears from all faces...." This mountain, where death is destroyed forever, is obviously heaven where there will be a feast never-ending. On that mountain the word "good-bye" does not exist. As St. Augustine wrote: "We shall have no enemies in heaven; we shall never lose a friend."

Friday, December 10, 2010

A Catholic seminarian of Togolese nationality, Nicolas Eklou Komla, was murdered on Sunday, December 5 on Belair Street, Mont Ngafula, on the outskirts of Kinshasa, capital of Democratic Republic of Congo. Overnight, December 4-5, the seminarian was returning on foot with some colleagues from the Jesuit school, St Peter Canisius in Kimwenza, when a masked gunman blocked their path, presumably to rob them.The assailant soon fired several rounds at the seminarian, who died several hours later. Nicolas Eklou Komla, was born on June 4, 1985 in Togo, and entered the Jesuits October 7, 2008. He made his first vows on October 2, 2010. Nicolas Eklou Komla had arrived in the DRC two months before his death to study philosophy. The funeral for the seminarian will be held on December 11 at the Church of St Mary in Kimwenza. Nicolas Eklou Komla will be buried in the cemetery at St Peter Canisius in Kimwenza.

Link (here) to Spero News From the Irish Jesuits
Nicolas Eklou Komla SJ, a young 24 year old Jesuit scholastic, was shot dead on Sunday 5 December by unknown gun-men at Bel-Air, not far from the Jesuit Canisius College in Kinshasa, DR Congo. Three of his confrères managed to escape the shoooting. Nicolas was the fourth Jesuit from Kimwena-Kinshasa to die violently in the last four years.

Saturday, December 11
10:00 am: Funeral Mass (Church of St. Mary Kimwenza)
Interment Cemetery scholasticate P. Canisius
Note: All Jesuits offer Mass for him, according to our manner of proceeding. Those who want to celebrate together muniront of a blade and a purple stole and white on Friday, Saturday.Link (here) to Jesuits of the Central Africa Province

Application of the touch
Imagine in your feeble hands the crucifix, which the priest presents to you; imagine yourself touching your own body which will soon only be a corpse. How cold your feet! Your arms, shriveled by sickness, begin to stiffen. How painfully your chest labors with your unequaled breathing, which will soon cease!Your heart which beats with a scarcely perceptible movement, your face hollowed by fever and covered with cold sweat - it is in this state you have seen your friends or near relatives dying? It is in this state that your friends and your relatives will see you before long. Make these reflection today, which your agony will soon inspire in those who witness it. End by a colloquy with our Lord dying: "Into Thy hands o Lord, I commend my spirit" Psalms 30:6

Our Father, Who art in heaven,
Hallowed be Thy Name.
Thy Kingdom come.
Thy Will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven. Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil. Amen.

Hail Mary,
Full of Grace,
The Lord is with thee.
Blessed art thou among women,
and blessed is the fruit
of thy womb, Jesus.
Holy Mary,
Mother of God,
pray for us sinners now,
and at the hour of death. Amen.

When in 1846 the French Minister Adolphe Thiers publicly attacked the education of the Jesuits on similar grounds, six hundred former pupils of the Jesuits, who then held high positions in the administration, in literary and industrial circles, came forth with the solemn declaration:

Jules Ferry

"Our Jesuit professors taught us, that God and His religion have to enlighten man's intellect and guide his conscience; that all men are equal before God and before the law which is an expression of God's will; that the public powers are for the nations, not the nations for the public powers; that every one has the sacred duty to make all sacrifices, even that of property and life, for the welfare of the country; that treason and tyranny alike are sins against God and crimes against society. Would that all France knew that this calumniated education is solid and truly Catholic, and that we, by learning to unite our Catholic faith with patriotism, have become better citizens, and more genuine friends of our liberties."

In 1879, Jules Ferry introduced new laws to suppress the Jesuit schools. In the Revue des Deux Mondes(1880), Albert Duruy asked Ferry whether the Jesuit pupils had less bravely fought against the Germans in the war of 1870, or whether more Jesuit pupils had taken part in the Commune; whether especially the ninety pupils of the one Jesuit school in Rue des Postes, Paris, who had fallen in the battles of that war, had been bad citizens, devoid of patriotism ? The same question may be asked in every country where Jesuits are engaged in educating youth: Have Jesuit pupils ever shown less patriotism, less heroism, less self-sacrifice for their country than pupils of secular institutions?

There are many good reasons why St. Joseph should be the special heavenly patron of dedicated souls - in the religious life, in the priesthood, and among the laity. But as the Church teaches, he is especially to be venerated and his patronage invoked because he was the guardian of the Virgin Mary and the foster-father of Jesus. The dignity of the Mother of God is so sublime that nothing created can rank above it.

But as Joseph was united to the Blessed Virgin by the ties of marriage, we may believe that he approached nearer than anyone else to the eminent dignity by which the Mother of God surpasses all human persons in holiness.

Marriage is the most intimate of all unions, which from its essence confers a sharing of gifts between those joined together in wedlock. Thus, in giving Joseph the Blessed Virgin as his spouse, God appointed him to be not only the witness of her virginity, the protector of her honor, but also, because they were truly married, a sharer in her exalted sanctity.

Link (here) to read the full piece on Saint Joseph by Father John Hardon, S.J.

Thursday, December 9, 2010

Father Roger Charles Lenaers (85), at a lecture in Vienna according to a report of the Linz commerce website, 'kath.net'. The old man is active in the parish of Vorderhornbach in the Diocese of Innsbruck. Religion consists in a thin flow of experience for the Jesuit that the human intellect can't grasp entirely and is hidden behind an experiential "something": "Because of this I am a deeply religious atheist."

The Jesuit church of Concepcion dominates the town's cobblestone main square. Its orange and yellow images of saints and ornate flower designs painted on the facade glow in the full splendour of 18th century architecture. On a starry night, recalling the days of Jesuit evangelisation a few centuries ago, a sonata for double violin by Domenico Zipoli resonates inside the huge church. A baroque ensemble of young players is serenading international visitors who have come to this remote Bolivian jungle town of almost 19,000 inhabitants to learn what makes the Chiquitania so unique. Here we can feel transported to 350 or 400 years ago, because people in these missions still maintain their original culture. Geovani Gisler Brazilian delegate, Until their expulsion in 1767, Jesuit missionaries spent almost 80 years converting the local indigenous people to Christianity. They also established missions in what is now Paraguay, Brazil and Argentina. But whereas the churches in neighbouring countries are just ruins today, the missions in Bolivia have preserved the Jesuit cultural and artistic living legacy. In 1990, six of these missions were declared worthy of protection by the United Nations' cultural organisation, Unesco.

The Catholic Archdiocese of Washington has reaffirmed the illegitimate status of Catholics for Equality, a budding homosexualist “Catholic” group that is scheduled to be hosted at a student event at Georgetown University on Wednesday evening.

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Father Paul du Poisson, S.J. was on his way to consult M. Perrier, and to adopt with him proper measures to enable the Akensas to descend to the banks of the Mississippi, for the accommodation of the voyagers. He arrived among the Natchez on the 26th. of November, that is, two days before the massacre. The next day, which was the first Sunday of Advent, he said Mass in the Parish, and preached in the absence of the Cure. He was to have returned in the afternoon to his Mission among the Akensas, but he was detained by some sick persons, to whom it was necessary to administer the Sacraments.

On Monday, he was about to say Mass, and to carry the Holy Sacrament to one of those sick persons whom he had confessed the evening before, when the massacre began; a gigantic chief six feet in height, seized him, and having thrown him to the ground, cut off his head with blows of a hatchet. The Father in falling only uttered these words, " Ah, my God ! ah, my God!"

M. du Codere drew his sword to defend him, when he was himself killed by a musket ball from another Indian whom he did not perceive.Link (here)

Read below the Ember day reflection from Fr. Z, go (here) to read it in it's entirety.

Ember Wednesday of Advent, those who have the use of the older, traditional Roman Missal, offer worship to God with the so-called Missa aurea, the"Golden Mass".

There is a strong Marian overtone to today’s Mass formulary. The Roman Station for today is St. Mary Major. the Gospel is the Annunciation. The illuminated missals and sacramentary of centuries past presented the Gospel or at least its initial capital letters in gold, when our nickname Missa aurea. And the Gospel pericope begins Missus estangelus Gabriel.... It was once celebrated with a solemnity nearly approaching a feast day. Thus, Missa aurea also refers to little dramas in medieval times in which the Annunciation was acted out. It is thus not just "golden Mass" but "the golden sending", which of course refers to the moment in which Our Lord becomes incarnate in the womb of the Virgin and His work for our salvation begins a new phase.

"The church has acted like a lazy monopoly," the Rev. Thomas Reese told the crowd at Mandeville Hall, noting that one in three baptized Catholics now leaves the church in adulthood. Reese, a senior fellow at Woodstock Theological Center at Georgetown University and former editor of the Jesuit magazine America, was one of three panelists invited by the university to discuss "The Future of the Church." The topic's subtitle was "Sources of Hope," and after airing their grievances with their church, the three unabashedly progressive speakers pointed out ways they believe the nation's largest denomination can remain attractive and relevant. "The Catholic Church is confronting a real crisis" of eroding membership, Sister Carol Jean Vale, president of Chestnut Hill College and moderator of the two-hour program, said in her opening remarks.

"How can we form Catholics for the future?" she asked. Reese, who is a Jesuit priest, laid much of the blame for the erosion of Catholic identity on what he described as a "culture of clericalism" in the church. Too many priests and bishops seem to believe that "we know better" than the laity "and we don't need to listen to them."

Reese, a prolific author, also opined that "our churches and our liturgies are boring." Seventy-one percent of ex-Catholics who join a Protestant or evangelical congregation report that the Catholic Church "wasn't meeting my spiritual needs," he said. Parishes need to do a better job of preaching, offer better music, be more welcoming, and provide engaging programs for children, Reese said.

Maureen Locher, from the Maryland Province, said Neil McLaughlin, now 82, was removed from all ministries and barred from practicing or describing himself as a priest publicly in 2006, two years before the recent allegation. That action was taken after the Province had reviewed McLaughlin’s record and discovered a much earlier allegation of s@xual misconduct that apparently had not been acted on, Locher said. The entire first incident occurred before the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops issued its “Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People.” The charter was a response to the priest s@x abuse scandal that started in Boston and swept across the nation. Coupled with new mandates from the Vatican, it was designed in part as an answer to numerous allegations that bishops had concealed the problem by reassigning accused priests rather than removing them from duty. Locher noted the Jesuits are technically not bound to the charter since they are not diocesan priests, but they follow it.

Sunday, December 5, 2010

THE Christmas season is a joyous celebration for Catholics so it may come as some surprise to hear that dedicated Ballymun priest, Father Peter McVerry, hates this time of year. He hates the commercialism and the pressure a lot of people succumb to.This year, as with many other years, Fr McVerry spent his Christmas Day helping youths in need.“I will be working over Christmas thankfully,” he told Northside People.

"I hate the Christmas period though as it puts so much pressure on people.“People feel like they have to spend money they don’t have on a new outfit. It’s like their dignity and self-esteem is undermined if they don’t have something new to wear. Other people feel like they have to buy lots of presents for people regardless of whether they can afford to or not. They feel like they couldn’t possibly turn up to visit their family empty handed. It’s very unfair.”Fr. McVerry has been a member of the Jesuits for over 40 years.

He started up the Jesuit’s first homeless hostel for youths almost 20 years ago in the inner city. “Many of the youths we cater for have no family but for those who do we usually spend a few hours at Christmas ferrying them around to visit their loved ones as there is no public transport on Christmas Day,” he explained.

"Then we will usually try to make things as normal as possible with a big dinner that day, but really it is not the same as having your own family to spend Christmas with.” There are now six Jesuit hostels, treatment and detox centres throughout the Northside; in Cabra, Glasnevin, Ballymun, Santry, Drumcondra and another in North County Dublin.

"I opened up the first hostel thinking that would be it but then the problem of homelessness grew and combined with drug addiction over the years,” he said. “We try to help youths to overcome life’s difficulties and we help them to establish a drug free independent life.” Fr McVerry also goes beyond his call of duty to provide support and character references to some youths facing criminal proceedings. “A lot of the homeless youths and drug users come to us with criminal proceedings pending,” he said.

“If I know them, I will furnish the court with a report or I will speak as a character reference for them.I am happy to do that. In principal I will always try to help if I feel that going to prison would not be the better option for them.”

Fr McVerry is a familiar face around Ballymun and inner city. He lives in a flat on Shangan Road with some of his fellow Jesuits and of course his dog, Jack, who goes almost everywhere with him. “Ah sure he’s great company and I try to take him everywhere I can,” he said affectionately.“I’ve been very lucky in life. I have a job that I really enjoy. I’m not in a dead-end job that I hate going into every morning. I have great job satisfaction and I feel like I have a purpose in life.” Fr McVerry is a modest man with a simple wish for the new year. “I wish people would have a positive attitude towards the homeless,’ he said.“I hope people will acknowledge a homeless person if they pass them on the street. Give them a smile and recognise that they have hopes, joys, dreams and fears like everyone else.” The Jesuit centres depend almost entirely on generous donations. Donations can be sent to the Peter McVerry Trust, 26 Upper Sherrard Street, Dublin 1.

Saturday, December 4, 2010

Lew, indeed, this video is wonderful (Crosby & Bowie), and I remember watching the song being performed for the first time on Bing's Christmas special. However, thanks to YouTube and the people who stock it, this fabulous video is also online. This is the scene from White Christmas where Bing, Danny Kaye, Rosemary Clooney, and Vera Ellen sing "Snow" in the train dining car. It's so special because it showcases Bing's natural ease, his elocution, his gorgeous phrasing. (Though I never liked the fact that the audio recording of this song replaces Rosemary with Peggy Lee.) Another showcase moment is Bing's short version of "Count Your Blessings," as he sings to Rosemary Clooney. There has never been a more marvelous voice. (Though Gary North has argued that Nat Cole is top shelf.)Clive James comments on the remarkable and unparalleled skill of Bing Crosby:

In high school Crosby learned elocution from the Jesuits. He went on to a college education. He was so at home with a twelve-cylinder vocabulary that his radio and film writers later poured on the polysyllables in full confidence that he could handle anything. But he was saying exactly what he meant when he said he had an ordinary voice. He could do extraordinary things with it, but regarded as a mere sound it was just the noise of a nice man speaking.

He put most of his art into making sure that he still sounded like that even when he was performing prodigies. The secret of great success in the popular arts is to bring the punters in on the event, and you can’t do that if you are manifestly doing something they can’t do. You have to be doing something they can do, so that they can dream. It’s just that you do it better, so that they can admire. Essentially they are admiring themselves: it’s a circuit, and too much obvious bravura will break it.
I think many people don't know how Bing came to be so unique and refined. A New York Times book review of the Gary Giddins biography on Bing states:
Crosby thought that his singing grew more secure through the years -- that he had been sloppy in the early 30's. It didn't matter: the rich intimacy of the voice, the beautiful phrasing, the perfect elocution and pitch and, crucially, the mastery of the microphone and of radio prevailed over carelessness and weak material. Crosby is both revolutionary, in that no earlier singer sounds anything like him, and assimilative, containing the Jewish Jolson, the African-American Armstrong, his own Irish musical heritage. He's both a melting pot and uniquely himself.
...Bing attended a Jesuit high school in Spokane, studying Latin and mastering the art of elocution, to which he later said he owed his remarkable phrasing.
Bing, I believe, matured during his mid-40s to mid-50s stage. His voice settled and he did away with the unnaturally high pitches of his Columbia years of the late 20s - early 30s. This is also a great YouTube moment, with Bing singing a live and informal version of White Christmas, in his later years. (You'll have to ignore the aggravating piano player.) Even in his 60s and 70s he could still swing with grandeur.
Another scene from White Christmas shows Bing and Danny performing the "Sisters" routine of Rosemary Clooney and Vera Ellen. I've read all the Crosby bios, and the story is that Crosby, who was rather macho, initially refused to do this scene because they wanted him in full lady's garb. He finally settled for rolling up his trousers and sticking a gadget in his hair, and thank goodness, because it is a memorable scene from the movie.
There are many terrific videos of Bing out on the web that all fans must see. A must-watch video is this moment with the twins of Cool, Bing & Dean. My favorites. All cool and class. Here's another Bing & Dean video in various skits. And of course there's the other great duo, Bing and Louis Armstrong. This video reflects how much fun these two had together in performance. Here's another one of my favorites, Andy Williams, with Bing in the 60s. Then, this video is especially wonderful as it showcases Bing (whistlin') and the fabulous Ella Fitzgerald (scattin') in rare footage of them together. Finally, here is a YouTube video of Bing & Frank Sinatra singing White Christmas, and Bing with the Andrews Sisters.This TV spot of Bing is especially notable because it would never make it on the air today. In a time when only "holiday" music is appropriate, Bing reminds us what Christmas (yes, "Christmas") is really about.
I too love Bing, and thank goodness a real scholar - Gary Giddins - set the story straight on a guy who was perniciously portrayed post-death. There has never been a more talented entertainer then Bing Crosby.

In the fall of 1920, Bing enrolled in the Jesuit-run Gonzaga University in Spokane, Washington, with the intention of becoming a lawyer. He maintained a B+ average. While at Gonzaga, he sent away for a set of mail-order drums. After much practice, he soon became good enough and was invited to join a local band made up of mostly local high school kids called the "Musicaladers," managed by Al Rinker. He made so much money doing this that he decided to drop out of school during his final year to pursue a career in show business.

Today "men and women experience their sexuality as a gift which enables them to express intimate love and commitment." There remain, however, questions and doubts "about the meaning and value of priestly or religious chastity."

Though challenges exist, the Jesuits of GC 34 remain convinced that "fidelity in chastity characterizes the life of the Society today" as it did so in the past by God's goodness.

For Ignatius, members of the Society are "rooted in a fundamental detachment and a determination to serve God totally" made possible by a deeply personal love for Christ.

Jesuits are called to "embody in his life that singleness of vision and readiness for mission which is the Ignatian understanding of the angels."

Jesuits are called to this gift of God to a discipleship and renunciation in freedom for the universal charity of God towards all men and women. Consecration to God through chastity witnesses to Christ's comprehensive engagement of human beings. It is a prophetic reminder of our eternal life with God.

Chastity is, therefore, essentially apostolic. Chastity reinforces the value of marriage. "Both point to a love and fidelity deeper than sexual expression and of which Christian marriage and religious chastity are divergent and sacred realizations."

Human love freely offered to all is a powerful sign leading others to God. Thus, the Jesuit lives in radical apostolic availability. The vow of chastity "arises from and is based upon a conscious and free decision under grace."

For the Jesuit, this "vow entails the obligation of complete continence in celibacy for the sake of the Kingdom of heaven."

The loss of conjugal intimacy, denying himself a family and affective bonding are painful choices for the Jesuit. Other joys are possible but cannot remove all of the void. He lives in a solitude that can be both desert and cross. The poverty that flows from the vow of chastity completes and fulfills his life but it comes at a great cost.

Link (here) to read the full text on Ignatian chastity from the decrees of the GC34

When Campion heard the sentence he said: " In condemning us you condemn all your own ancestors all the ancient bishops and kings, all that was once the glory of England."

To his persecutors, Campion said, “Be it known unto you that we have made a league –

all the Jesuits of the world – whose succession and multitude must over-reach all the practices of England –

cheerfully to carry the cross you shall lay upon us and never to despair of your recovery while we have a man left to enjoy your Tyburn, to be racked with your torments or to be consumed with your prisons. The expense is reckoned, the enterprise is begun; it is of God; it cannot be withstood. So the faith was planted, so it must be restored.”

Thursday, December 2, 2010

St. Francis Xavier, New York, N.Y. — This parish had its origin in 1847, when Father John Larkin and three other Jesuits had charge of a church in Elizabeth Street near Walker Street, which was dedicated to the Holy Name of Jesus. The basement of the church served as an academy with 120 scholars. The church was burned down on January 28, 1848. It was decided not to rebuild on the old site, so Father Larkin sold the property and rented a house at 3rd Avenue, where he continued the school.

To quote an appreciative historian of the parish: "Father Larkin having been obliged to make a hurried trip to Europe in order to escape the honor of being 'Bishop of Toronto,'"

About Me

I am not a Jesuit, nor am I a cleric. I spent about 5 years under the spiritual direction of a Jesuit, 3 of those years in a weekly directed retreat in everyday life. The profound impact that the Society and the Excercises had upon my life, resulted in me, trying to deal with that impact in some way by sharing my view of Jesus Christ with others. My intention is to pull together Jesuitical and Catholic subjects that interest me. I was born on the feast day of St. Paul Miki, S.J.. I am the father of three small children and an infant, I am married to a great wife.